Baba says, ‘you have to claim your inheritance from the Father‘. The Father gives you children the right to claim your inheritance. 

For half a cycle, I lived the life of an orphan with no sense of identity or belonging. Each time I was faced with a challenge, I panicked. The feeling of lack was perpetual and so it always seemed like I needed something or the other. I had therefore resorted to calling out to God for His help quite frequently. Except, I didn’t know Who God is or anything about Him other than what people said about Him. And so I had created this image of Him that I looked upon in awe, with some amount of fear but mostly subservience.

So when I needed help, I prostrated myself before Him and called out ‘O God, please help me with my exams’, ‘O God, please help me win this project’, ‘O God, please take away this illness’, ‘O God, please give me a little peace, a little strength…’ and the list continued. Come to think of it, not only did I beg, I didn’t even do that well! Always asking for an itty-bitty this and an itty-bitty that.

The Father says, ‘I come when the path of devotion comes to an end‘. He comes when it is His time to come the end of the cycle, at the confluence of the iron and golden age. He comes when it is time to change the whole world from hell to heaven.

I come and wake my children from the deep sleep of bhakti, He says. I give them the nectar of knowledge.

Bhakti is indeed a deep sleep, I beg from my own Father. God comes and reminds me of who I am and gives me His own introduction. He comes to meet His long lost and now found children. No one except God meets souls with this awareness that we have met before. As soon as I meet Him, even though it is for the first time in this cycle, as I meet, the old awareness, the old recognition, which is recorded in the soul as sanskars, re- emerges. Then there is the automatic sound of the awareness in my heart: This is Him, This is my same Father and I say: You are mine, and the Father says: You are Mine. 

That second when that thought of ‘mine’ emerges, I find my identity and belonging. In that one powerful awareness, in that one thought, I find a new life and a new world and become stabilized in the awareness of ‘My Baba’ for all time. When I become this embodiment of awareness, I become an embodiment of power that comes from that awareness. I am a child of God, He is my Father. I become one with all rights to all that is His, it becomes my inheritance. The entire treasure chest is mine. ‘It’s open, take as much as you want’, He tells me, ‘it is yours’. And what’s more, each child gets the treasure chest in its entirety. The treasure doesn’t get divided amongst the children, it get multiplied such that each receives equally.

So far so good. What I do at this point makes all the difference.

If I simply feel good staring at the chest every day, then that’s not much use and gives me very limited satisfaction. It’s like if I had all this beautiful jewelry that is sitting in the locker. Yes, it’s good that I have it but I experience real satisfaction only when I actually wear it. It’s the same here. I need to take the treasures out of the chest and wear them i.e. experience them, imbibe them. I have to claim the inheritance.

Baba gives me the attainment of all relationships with Him. Have I claimed this attainment by relating to Him in all my relationships? or do I just recite as in bhakti that He is my Father, Mother, Friend…? Unless I accept Him with my heart, I won’t experience these relationships with Baba. Consequently, I won’t feel fulfilled, I will continue to seek them outside and what’s more, I won’t learn how to relate the right way. He teaches me to relate through His example. Then there are the treasures of all virtues and powers. Do I experience them? In deep remembrance, do I soak myself in the experience of each virtue and power such that I embody them? Unless I do, I have not claimed them. I will only speak of them intellectually but don’t experience the power.

Use your inheritance, says Baba. That’s how you claim it.

When I imbibe each treasure of knowledge, each attainment and then step into the world, I position myself for success. When I encounter that person who talks to me angrily, I don’t react. I have the awareness of my powers and automatically summon the power of tolerance. Rather than be angry in return, I feel compassion, I protect my good wishes and pure feelings. When there are adverse situations, with the awareness of the rights attained from the Ocean of Happiness, with the enlightenment of the knowledge of Drama, I transform the sorrow into happiness. I know each scene is beneficial, I know that each soul is an actor and that they are playing their part. I become detached.

With my rights, I transform the darkness of sorrow, become a master bestower of happiness. I don’t just become one that constantly swings in the swings of happiness myself but I also radiate happiness to others. My right to happiness is so clear and deep and no one can erase it, I know and experience it is to be my birthright. 

But all of this starts with that awareness of being the child, the one with the right to the Father’s inheritance. If I don’t invest time in building upon that initial awareness, if I take my relationship with God lightly, then, I reduce it to a casual relationship. There is no power in it. Then, when situations comes, there is waste, be it wasteful thoughts, wasteful words or wasteful actions. So not only am I not building power, I am depleting any little power I did have. It’s no better than bhakti…I continue running on low power, continue living in fear and anxiety. And,…I continue calling out to God.

There is a difference of night and day between devotion and knowledge, explains Baba. The words ‘O God!’ must never emerge from your mouth. You now understand that He is your Father, so, you have to claim your inheritance from the Father.